Buriram Home Defeat Shock

Thai Premier League champions Buriram United, who won the league when they were known as Buriram PEA but the PEA have moved elsewhere and the rump of the championship winning team merged with Buriram who are the older club who won Division One, are you with me so far, have finally lost a home game.

Chonburi, backed by a scion of an influential east coast family, defeated the champions, backed by an influential north east family, 4-3 earlier this evening. Yep, I know, unbelievable innit? And it comes just weeks after Persiwa, an Indonesian team who don't 'do' home defeats, lost at home.

Before we get too excited it's only fair to point out some extenuating circumstances that accompanied both home defeats.

The game in Buriram was reffed by Japanese officials. The inference of course is clear. The Persiwa defeat was at home to their Papuan 'brothers'.

Anyway, quite how the influential north east family was talked into allowing a foreign ref is unclear. Perhaps they can say 'oh look, aren't we fair, we lost a home game?'

I got an email today from someone in Thailand who told me that foreigners don't understand how good the Thai league is and how the cost of living there is much cheaper than other countries; especially Indonesia. The correspondent of course has never been here but that's par for the course.

He went on to suggest leagues like Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar had to pay their players higher salaries because the standard in those countries was much lower than in Thailand. Of course players would willingly play in Thailand for free just to stay in the land of smiles is what he seems to be insinuating.

Eagle eye observers may have noticed a lot less Thai coverage in recent months. One reason is I think it's going down the tubes for all the hype. Beyond Chonburi, Muang Thong, BEC Tero and Buriram there ain't a lot of quality there.

Today Army United hosted TTM in front of less than 4,000. Not long ago BBCU played Samut Songkram in front of 239 fans. Only four clubs have pulled crowds in excess of 10,000 so far this season, Buriram United, Muang Thong United, Bangkok Glass and Wuachon United, don't ask where they came from, who have the largest crowd of the season when 30,101 saw them play Muang Thong United.

All the changes that go on up there make it quite difficult to follow from a far and as a family man that also covers the game in Indonesia there just aren't enough hours in the day to focus on three different kinds of insanity. Anyway there are plenty of great websites out there who do a good job of keeping up with stuff there any contribution I can make just ain't worth the effort.